Dead Space 2 on a Gateway P-6831fx

I dont know if anyone still has this laptop considering how old it is (early 08), but If so I was wondering if someone could help me out with it. It for some reason, pushes my GPU temps way harder than any game I've ever played on this laptop. My GPU crashes within about 10-15 min of play, meaning the monitor shuts off, while the audio continues to play. This sucks for several reasons, one, I can't play the game. Two, I played dead space 1 on the exact same laptop, and it ran without a hitch, taking into consideration dead space essentially uses the same engine, and performs similarly, I don't get why dead space 2 wont run flawlessly.

Does anyone have any tips? I have tried underclocking my card but that did nothing. As far as I know, I have zero control of the fan on this laptop. I've used compressed air to blow out any dust, although this game is a completely isolated case.

 

Update your DirectX.

Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - DirectX End-User Runtime

 

I actually have the latest version of DirectX.

 

Ok, but run the update. It has fixed numerous strange issues for me in the past. There are constant updates.

 

Yeah I did that too.

 

How high are the temps after 5 minutes? And have you played any other games, recently, with no issue?

 

This issue has occurred only with dead space 2, i cant imagine the temps being too high, since ive heard my laptop get louder with other games like metro 2033, but that game has never crashed on me. I have never experienced a GPU crash with any other game in the past or present. I feel like there may be some issue in the coding with 8800 chipsets within the game, I've found some people with this exact issue who had my chipset.

 

Is the GPU (or any other part) overclocked?

 

Not at all, If anything I tried underclocking. Playing the game with Vsync on considerably increases the playtime, but still, I dont want to play this game locked at 30fps, I got it on PC for a reason.

 

Sounds like overheating tbh, run the game with HWmonitor running in the background and report the highest temp to us on CPU and GPU.

 

See if there is a way to limit the maximum frame rate in the game... maybe via config file...

 

Well the temps go from 45C to 65C which is what I generally see in most games.

Its peculiar to note dead space 2 crashes on the exact same spot everytime, when that dude helping you in the intro turns into a necromorph.

 

Okay the value for TZS0 spikes from 40C to 100C, that seems highly abnormal. CPU and GPU only increase about 20C. My question is what does TZS0 represent? Considering its rising 60C.

 

Ideas anyone? What if I lower the voltage(can I even?)?

 

TZS0 should be the chipset. Perhaps you should try replacing the thermal paste or pad which covers it.

If your CPU/GPU are only hitting 65C, it's definitely not the issue.

 

That does seem like a viable option, but the main problem I have with that is, this is in extremely isolated case, if I was having this issue with all of my games, I would replace the thermal paste in a heartbeat, but its seriously just Dead Space 2. I have no idea what devs changed from dead space 1 to 2 that its clashing with my system now.

 

Ok things just got completely bizarre. So I decided to run the game in windowed mode, and began a new game so the intro cutscene would play, I also ran HWmonitor at the same time, and watched the temps, absolutely nothing spiked or went past the norm, but when Franco(that dude in the beginning that gets turned into a necromorph) goes into strike at Isaac, the computer crashes in the same fashion, and it crashes at this spot every single time without fail. I can't even begin to speculate on what is going on here. I want to call this the Franco crash.

 

Reinstall the game?

 

Hm, well lets give Ockham's razor a shot.

 

Agree with Kevin. Usually the chipset just has a thermal pad over it. You might want to make sure that is on properly or the thermal pad is still working. 100c on chipset doesn't sound right to me.

 

Reinstall didn't change anything, it still crashes right when Franco attacks me. I observed the temps again and they arent spiking, I think that one time the temperature rose to 98-100C was a fluke in the system, because I played the game in windowed mode once again to simultaneously observe the temperature, and everything is normal, it's almost like the game is programmed to shut me down right at that instant.

 

Have you applied the 1.1 patch?

This is where I downloaded the patch from.

http://www.megagames.com/patches/dead-space-2-patch-11

 

You could try upgrading your video drivers as well. This really sounds like a software bug/crash, not something hardware related. You might want to try googling anything relating to this crash as well.

 

Well...I turned on V-sync and it seems fine now, that actually kinda sucks since its locked at 30fps, but at least I can play it I guess.

 

you could always turn it back off when you get to the first save point see if it doesnt crash anymore. you can also turn vsync off in game and for it through your gpu drivers.

 

I'll give that a shot and see.

 

Did you use crack? Some crack files were not stable. Ignore this if you don't use crack.

 

yeah I tried turning on vsync after that scene, still crashes in 10 or so minutes, activating vsync through nvidia CP gets me 20 more minutes of playtime, but everything seems to be fine as long as vsync is on in the game settings, guess thats the ticket then, oh well, its 30fps locked but at least I can actually play the game.

 

What drivers are you running?

 

280.26, i just grabbed it a few days ago, on an unrelated note, it boosted performance in Deus Ex:HR.

 

Ya don't go off "sound" you need to monitor your temps. From there it's easier to troubleshoot. even if it isn't a graphically intensive game, there are some games that push my temps high (l4d) and it's because the CPU is being used more and when combined with the GPU, you get higher temps than a game that may be just pushing the GPU due to the demanding graphics. Source based games run my CPU way higher than my GPU. So until you report your temps you don't even know if it is the GPU. The fact that you aren't artifacting could possibly even be your CPU. Download HWinfo and run the "sensor only" and report the CPU/GPU temps.

 

CPU
Core0
Idle: 36C
Load:50C
Core1
Idle: 34C
Load: 54C

GPU
Idle: 44C
Load: 57C

GPU Voltage
Idle 0.85V
Load: 1.00V

These values are what I normally see across all games.

 

I suggest you try rolling back a previous driver and underclock again. If that doesn't back, use your factory driver and underclock again. My laptop, for example, will crash when using any intensive 3D application with any driver past 9.12. Only thing that works well is using the original driver and underclocking memory by 50 MHz. That pretty much gets rid of any possible crash.

 

I actually haven't tried playing the game with Vsync off ever since I got the 280.26 drivers, I think ill run that first. I doubt drivers are playing a significant part here, I borrowed the game from a friend around when it came out, and the issue persisted, and I had whatever driver was current in January.

 

Well...even with vsync on, I can only play the game for about 2 and a half hours...but I suppose that's manageable.